The Curious Case of the Unrelated Title
by PleaseCriticizeMe
Summary: A vagrant, Cole, finds a sick Pokemon and goes on a journey across Sinnoh to find the cure for its ailment.


**Disclaimer: Disclaimers are fucking stupid. It should be pretty fucking obvious to anyone that no author on a site called "" owns any of the shit from the source material that they're writing about.**

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Ch. 1

The taps that came as his feet plotted down the pavement echoed throughout the streets. Jubilife was normally a very beautiful, busy city, but on this particularly early  
morning, the man working his way down the block wasn't in what most would consider to be the best part of town. The shaggy backpack that he had slung over his  
right shoulder and the scruffy beard worn on his mandible would have been considered boorish in any other part of town, but here it seemed almost as if the man  
could fit in. He was not from the area he walked through; however, he was a traveler who had just arrived in the city. From looking at him, one would not be able to  
tell where he came from; he looked like a wanderer, a "mountain man".

The man stopped at a street corner, slinging the backpack from his shoulder onto the ground and peering at the street sign above him. As was the usual for when he  
entered a new location, he was completely lost. A woman wandered in his direction, trotting down the sidewalk from the opposite direction, "Excuse me." The man  
spoke, trying to get the attention of the woman. He assumed it was because of how he looked, or perhaps it was the gruff sound of his voice flowing through his  
bone-dry mouth, but the woman turned her head away from him and ignored him as she walked past. "That's about right…" muttered the man under his breath.

He knew that it would be up to himself to find the directions to the Pokemon Center. Often they would double as hostels and, as an experienced vagabond, he knew  
that they were often the best places to stay in town as, out of the kindness of their hearts, they took people in for almost no price. The man looked about, trying to  
determine where the downtown skyline would be, but before he could continue his guessing game, he heard a sharp voice, "Excuse me, mister?" He turned around  
to find a childish boy wearing overalls and sporting a bowl-cut standing before him. The demeanor of the boy was in stark contrast to the hunched over, tired look of  
the man. "Do you need some help with something?" the boy asked, "I saw that woman ignoring you, that's no good."

The man nodded, "It's something that I've come to expect. I'm actually looking for the city's Pokemon Center, would you be able to tell me how to get there?"

The boy shook his head, "Wow, you're a long way away, you'll have to go all the way to downtown, it's about six miles that way." The boy pointed down a street  
perpendicular to the one that the man had been walking on.

"Thank you," the man responded, digging his hand into his pocket, "Do I need to…?"

"Oh, no, Mister, don't worry about that, it's just being nice is all."

The man nodded and thanked the boy again, he crossed the street heading towards the downtown area but, before he could get very far he was stopped again by  
the voice of the boy, "Hey, what's your name?" He turned around and shouted back across the street to the boy, "It's Cole." The boy threw back, "Good luck, Mister  
Cole." He waved at the man and Cole waved back.

The minutes flew by like the steps on the sidewalk and, after about an hour; Cole found himself in an open park that seemed to cut through the suburbs of the city.  
He found a water fountain, took a swig to refresh his parched body, and placed himself on a bench, right next to the route that he was to continue to take. The  
backpack, which he had placed by his feet, was unzipped and out of it he pulled a simple, red and white pokeball. With a simple toss the ball found itself in the  
grass in front of the man and, with a plume, opened, revealing a purple, ghostly Pokemon before him.

The Pokemon greeted him with a spin in the air and came to hover a few feet in front of him. "Hello, Misery." Cole spoke to the Pokemon, a Mismagius. The  
Pokemon, which he came to address as Misery responded with the usual macabre, ethereal sounds, something one would expect out of a whale.

The man never really knew what the Pokemon was saying, it was hard to be completely sure, but, as with any animal, he easily could tell how she was feeling. In  
truth, the Mismagius had been cooped up inside of the pokeball since they had first entered the city. She was glad to be out and floated around the park with glee. If  
one were from another world, they might have found it odd to let such a powerful entity fly around freely, interacting with whatever it cared to, but in the world of  
Pokemon, it was a normal thing that most people never thought twice about.

Misery was a good-natured Mismagius who had been with Cole for years and he trusted her. His eyes followed the purple being as she floated around the park. It  
was a nice sized area with beautiful green grass and clear-blue water. The sun was just coming up in the sky and had turned the clouds into pink and purple gobs of  
cotton candy, set against a pastel-colored sky. It wasn't a warm day, but it wasn't cold either and the sweet breeze that swept across the park made the climate seem  
sublime, considering the time of the year. Sitting there was soothing and relaxing, he had been walking for three straight days, stopping only to sleep, and, though  
he should have probably been used to it, he was tired and ready for a nice, quiet night at the Pokemon Center. Cole considered spending a day or two in Jubilife  
City, to take in the sights and sounds that he had hear made the town so popular, but was never truly sure whether he wanted to stay in one place for an extended  
period of time. Roaming just suited him, he assumed.

After fifteen minutes it was time to go. Cole wanted more, of course, but fifteen was all he'd allow himself. The thought was strong on his mind, "Once you're at the  
Center, you can rest as much as you want." He recalled Misery back into her pokeball, tossed it into his bag and continued onward into town.

The cobbled street that he was on turned into a sidewalk, then a path and then it finally ended with nothing in front of Cole, except for a forest. He sighed, he wasn't  
sure if he should go around to play it safe or not waste the time and just trek through the woods. The sky scrapers were easily visible from the location where his feet  
were planted on the ground and a little detour through the woods, he figured, would be no harm. In fact, the earlier he could get downtown, the better off he would  
be, and who knew how long walking all of the way around it could take. Furthermore, he wasn't even sure of what streets went where in the city, so it was decided;  
he stepped off of the path and, after a few yards of grass, entered the forest.

It was dimly shaded in the forest, especially considering the early morning atmosphere, but had seen far worse, namely the forest outside of Viridian and the Ilex  
forest. The herbage wasn't dense and the terrain wasn't hard to walk on. Assuming that his sense of direction didn't get disrupted, he reassured himself that this was  
the correct decision. It was rare, he thought, to have such a lush forest right outside of a city, but Cole enjoyed all of it. The forest was populated by a small variety of  
wild Pokemon, the Starly were chirping their beautiful melodies the Burmy hung from the trees, waiting for their transformation into Mothim. It was light out now, but  
Cole knew that if he had come through just a few hours earlier he could have heard the LeedeleedeleedeleedeWHOOP of the Kricketune.

The forest got lighter and lighter, he could tell that the end of it was near and continued to laud himself on his amazing decision. However, as he neared the end of  
the forest, he heard something that he hadn't experienced before. To him it sounded like metal grinding together, but upon a closer listen, he could tell that the  
sound was more organic than that. The shaggy man was perplexed and stood there for a minute, trying to pinpoint the sound. He looked around, gazing past various  
trees and shrubs trying to identify the source. He wandered around in an off-beat path that he hoped would lead him to it. Eventually he came to a large tree with a  
hollowed out bottom, situated above a creek's gully.

Cole couldn't get to the hollow chamber without jumping into the creek, something he didn't want to do if he could avoid it. Slumping the backpack on the ground, as  
he had done earlier, he reached into it and removed the pokeball from before. Instead of throwing it, he simply dropped it to the ground and the Pokemon came  
flying out. "Misery." The man tried to get her attention, but she hovered in a stationary position, looking around with confusion and then motioned to him, seeming to  
ask, "What are we doing here?"

"I need you to take a look inside of there." Cole pointed to the hollow, "I would but, you know, the creek."

The ghost nodded and floated herself down and into the fissure in the wood. She appeared back up, slipping through the trunk. Misery let out an eerie hum and  
motioned down towards the tree, while nodding. "I should check it out?" he asked her, to which he received another nod. "Even with the water and—" she cut him off  
with an angry cry and violently motioned towards the tree again.

With a sigh, Cole lunged into the creek, creating a large splash. He looked up towards the Mismagius in disgust as he could feel the water seeping through his  
shoes and pants. "Thank you," he told her in a scurrilous manner, "Thank you for this." Misery looked back at him with a neutral expression. "Right." He shook his  
head and waded through the water to the opened bottom of the tree. Upon peering inside, the man noticed that the closer he got the louder the sound seemed to  
get, this was definitely the source. "Holy shit!" the muffled exclamation from inside the cavern didn't surprise the Mismagius floating outside, "I'm going to need my  
bag, Misery."

The obedient friend whisked the bag down to Cole. He began searching inside, "I don't think I have anything in here that can help me." He threw the bag back into  
the creek and reached into the cave-like trunk of the tree. He pulled a humanoid creature out and propped it up on the shore of the creek. The creature was gasping  
and emitting shallow cries. The man climbed back onto the shore, with his bag right beside him. He looked at his ghostly friend, "We need to help it." Misery threw  
back a confused look, What do you want me to do?

Cole shook his head and began digging through his bag, "I don't have any potions or anything. I definitely don't have any pokeballs. …But I can't leave it here."

The Mismagius flew down and mocked picking the Pokemon up. "Carry it?" Cole inquired, "You mean to the Pokemon Center?" The purple phantom nodded and  
Cole looked back in the direction of the forest's exit. "We don't even know how far it is to the Center, but I guess we have no choice."

He picked up the little yellow and grey Pokemon, the mouth protruding from its head slumping until he reassured the grip. Even as it gasped for air and muffled  
cries, the little guy snuggled into Cole's chest. "Man," spoke Cole, addressing the Pokemon, "You're an odd Mawile." He looked back at Misery, "Can you get the  
bag?" She scooped it up.

"Good, then." With that the two of them were off, they flew out of the woods and raced towards the downtown area, hoping that the three of them could get to the  
Pokemon Center in time.


End file.
